Sudden tremors begin shaking the New Orleans. Islands in the river disappear, new ones appear. Riverbanks give way and trees fall into the water.
The New Orleans, with the Roosevelts aboard, had scarcely made it over the Falls of the Ohio and tied up below so everyone aboard could pause and catch their breath when a sudden tremor shook the boat. Its strangeness was such that some of those on board experienced a sensation similar to seasickness.
A River Gone Mad
After the boat had resumed its course down the lower Ohio and entered the Mississippi River the banks on either side of the water began to tremble and shake, causing the waters to react in ways the captain and crew had never experienced before.
As they fought their way downriver acres of riverbank shuddered and slid into the river. Islands in the river, that had for years been landmarks, disappeared. New islands rose to take their places in different locations.
Chaos and Confusion
The captain of the New Orleans became completely confused. Nothing on this river was where it was suppose to have been. He hailed flatboatmen also fighting their way, asking them for any direction they could give him. All were as hopelessly lost as he was. What was happening, no one knew. But the worst was yet to come.
That night, around 2:15 a.m., in the town of for New Madrid in what would be the state of Missouri, sudden loud rumblings began. With the deafening clash the earth began to move. People were flung from their beds, furniture was slung across rooms, and houses shook violently and began to tumble while a sulphurous vapor filled the air and seared lungs. Darkness covered the earth as it heaved and pitched.
New Madrid Earthquake
This was the strongest earthquake that, in known-history, has occurred in the United States. Its magnitude was such that by today's scientific calculations it must have reached at least 10 at the least by today's scale. For the next two years aftershocks of like magnitude were felt.
By the time the New Orleans reached the small town of New Madrid, the town was in shambles. Many cabins, with their occupants inside, had been swallowed up by the earth. The town's graveyard, and it occupants, was now in the river. People rushed to the waterfront, begging to be taken aboard the New Orleans, but it was impossible. The boat steamed on southward.
New Madrid Earthquake: A River Gone Mad, continues with Lydia in a World Gone Crazy: A Lady as Mighty as the River .
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